Notting Hill Carnival: Man filmed tripping up policeman during west London event

Video viewed thousands of times

The man suddenly lies on the ground just as the officer reaches him, causing the policeman to tumble over him (Twitter)

A man has been filmed tripping up a police officer at the Notting Hill Carnival, in a video viewed thousands of times on Twitter.

Mobile phone footage shows an officer in a hi-vis jacket running purposefully along a west London road strewn with litter.

The camera pans around to show the man the officer appears to be running towards suddenly lie on the ground just as he reaches him.

The move causes the officer to tumble over him.

The man, who was wearing black gloves, a white T-shirt, black trousers and a black backpack, then runs away, slipping his backpack off his shoulders as he is pursued by another officer.

The 10-second film is captioned "He came in for the tackle and manoeuvred great gameplay lmao #NottingHill" and has been retweeted more than 17,000 times.

The date and location of the video could not be verified.

While Scotland Yard said they could not comment on the specific incident, assistant commissioner Martin Hewitt had said: "I do not believe that when policing an event of celebration for London it is acceptable that 31 of my officers were injured.

"Whilst this is fewer than last year, it is still too many - it should not be any of our expectations that this violence against police officers takes place."

The chair of the Metropolitan Police Federation suggested the carnival should be banned after the "disgrace" of police officers being attacked.

Ken Marsh, who leads the rank-and-file group, asked: "What other event would be allowed to carry on regardless with so many police colleagues under attack?"

He said he suspected the true figure of officers injured on duty during the two-day carnival would end up being more than 28 - the number released by the Metropolitan Police on Monday night.

Mr Marsh added: "It is a disgrace. Twenty-eight brave colleagues went to work this weekend and were attacked for just doing their job. This is not normal. This is not acceptable.

"There are now so many officers being injured every year at the carnival - with more than 40 last year and let's not forget that an officer was stabbed in 2015.

"What other event would be allowed to carry on regardless with so many police colleagues under attack?"